For My Kingdom
A Frozen Fan Fiction
Chapter Seventeen:
Beware the Frozen Heart
Author's Note: Please be warned that this chapter contains almost all of the content that makes this fanfic rated T . It's slightly sexy and includes a miniscule amount of W/W. Enjoy!
As twilight faded into a diamond-studded night, Elsa was lying on top of her covers, alone in her bedroom, mulling over the events of the day in her mind like she was watching a play, a satisfied smile on her face. She had to admit that she enjoyed almost every minute of time she spent with Alex after the initial awkwardness of breaking the ice. Was she in love with him? No, but she had started to appreciate him as a friend and a potential ally in the coming years, maybe even indefinitely...
She sighed as the idea of marriage began to skate into her thoughts. As much as she liked Alex as a person and friend, husband was really stretching it. Maybe she was just too proud. She didn't really feel like she needed a king at her side, or even wanted one. She was doing just fine on her own up until the fiasco at the wedding reception... As soon as that mess was taken care of, she'd probably do just as well again.
Closing her eyes, she positioned her body so that her head was now lying on the pillow and she was curled up on her side. Even with all that considered, she couldn't get what he had said to her earlier out of her head. She did have a nasty habit of hiding up her feelings until they exploded out of her with shards of ice as shrapnel. Anna was a good sister and friend, but she had her own life to start now with Kristoff; Elsa couldn't rely solely on her for emotional support forever.
The book on her bedside table seemed to call out to her, but she didn't really like reading by candle light. It strained her eyes too much. She did pick it up though and flipped through the pages. It was a novel about the gods of Asgard and the wars that they helped the mortals win. She had read it many times, but it never got old. Though the words flew by in a blur so that she didn't absorb anything, she enjoyed the feeling of the old, ink-laden pages on her fingertips. She stopped at a painted image of Loki, the trickster god. As an avid reader and book lover, Loki was probably her favorite. He certainly made things interesting, if a lot more difficult, for the heroes. Elsa had to laugh at the irony of that. Loki must've been having a field day with her life, and if she was being perfectly honest, she'd rather he stopped.
The candle had almost reached it's end when Elsa decided to lay the book, and herself, to rest. She had to remember to ask a servant to bring her a new candle the next day; she'd had that one since before the reception. It was surpising that it had lasted that long.
Yawning, she pulled the covers over her and put out the candle, allowing the darkness envelope her.
ooo
Faust was a patient man. After the candlight disappeared from beneath the queen's bedroom door, he waited. He watched the clock across the hall carefully. He would be making his move at midnight.
Seconds ticked by slowly. Tension mounted in the man's shoulders every time the minute hand shifted. It was a long few hours. Did he care that the queen would die? No... Then why was he sweating? He glanced over at the other guard warily. There was no way he would know, but Faust's thoughts felt so loud in his mind that he almost was worried that he would hear them.
The lantern light that lit the corridor flickered ominously and the assassin continued to eye the clock. Five more minutes.
ooo
The door to the queen's bedroom creaked open. Though in reality the sound was insignificant, it was deafening in the murderer's ears. He stopped just inside the door, allowing his eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness, before slowly shutting the door and locking it.
A tiny click stirred Elsa's dreaming just enough that deep sleep escaped her. She rolled over off her side and onto her back, but her eyes remained sealed shut.
With great finesse, a long, wicked looking dagger was slid from it's sheath. The moonlight that entered from the open window to the balcony glinted off the polished metal eerily, a hazy light reflecting off of it and onto the wall of the bedroom. One could almost see it's thirst for blood.
The queen's sleep suddenly became troubled. A light breeze had been blowing outside for several hours, but as chance would have it, a heavy gust of wind threw the shutters against the wall, startling her awake. Her ice blue eyes flashed open to stare at the ceiling and instantly heard someone approach her hastily. She raised her head to look about the room and the only thing she noticed in the darkness was the shiny effect of moonlight on metal and a dark figure that held it at her bedside. Before she even had time to be scared, a rush of adrenaline rolled through her in a stream of energy. The covers were gone as the knife began to fall and the queen was on the other side of the bed, an anger burning in her eyes like an open flame.
Faust regretted.
Too angry for snow, Elsa conjured a hailstorm instead. The shards of ice that struck the man's face might as well have been glass in the icy cold and howling wind. The dagger fell to the floor as he fought to stay on his feet. The ice cut open his face and hands and tears of blood streaked down his neck. He didn't even notice how much the queen's storm was moving him until he reached the balcony that was now wide open and beckoning.
His eyes widened with fear as he gripped the wall desperately. "Your majesty! Stop! Please!" he cried out.
Elsa looked at the helpless assassin with a cold and emotionless glare. She had already recognized him from the banquet the other day. He was a guard, Faust, that she had trusted. He was a traitor. "Likely" was all she said. The storm didn't cease, rather, an especially large piece of hail flew into the man's face, blinding him and forcing him to release the wall. With one final, heavy gust of ice laden wind, the balcony wall might as well have been an extra step on the stairs that you didn't expect to be there. The storm didn't stop until the man's screams went silent.
The ice fell to the bedroom floor like they were marionettes that had their strings cut. Elsa was breathing heavily as the adrenaline began to fade and exhaustion began to take over. The mattress rushed up to greet her as she collapsed onto it. What did she just do? Where was the other guard? She had been so scared, so distracted, she didn't even bother to wonder how Faust managed to enter her room.
She stood quickly and ran to the door. It was locked from the inside. She reached for the spare key she kept over the door and fumbled shakily with it trying to get it into the lock. Her whole body trembled violently until she could no longer hold the key in her hands. It fell with a quiet clink to the floor. Tears welled up in her eyes and she placed her hands heavily against the door and banged it as hard as she could with her palms.
"Help..." she whispered, letting her forehead rest on the wood.
"Oh Elsa."
The queen froze, clenching her fingers into tight fists as a light hand rested on her shoulder. This was it. She was going to die.
"You've been one lucky little whore, I must say." The voice was a vaguely familiar one, belonging to a woman. "Though, I have to admit, if I really wanted you dead you wouldn't have lived to even see your sister born."
It took a surprising amount of courage for Elsa to face her Loki. Her breath was shaky and rose up in a cool, white mist, but the room had not changed in temperature at all. The woman before her was astonishingly young with a pixie-like cut of white-blond hair not so different from her own. Even in the semi-darkness of the moonlit room, Elsa could see the frigidity in her grey-blue eyes.
"Wh-who are you?" Elsa began to shiver in the warm room.
The woman shrugged theatrically; a snowy ball of magic appeared in her hand and she began to play with it carelessly like it was nothing more than a ball of rubber. Fear gripped Elsa's heart. She wasn't the only one with the ability to harness the power of winter. The woman replied, "Oh, no one of consequence... Yet." With a casual flick of the woman's wrist, Elsa's back slammed against the door and she froze there. No ice touched her, but the woman's magic held her fast nonetheless.
She closed in on Elsa like a lioness stalking her prey and whispered, "You're scared, aren't you?"
Elsa's breathing quickened and her heart raced. She wasn't just scared; she was terrified. Ice inched it's way over the door until she might as well have been stuck to a block of ice. "What do you want?" The question felt fuzzy as it past over her lips.
The woman smiled. "I merely want to ease your suffering."
Before the queen could process what was happening, the woman's body was pressed firmly against hers, and a pair of wandering hands felt up her waist to her chest. If breathing came difficult before, it was now nearly impossible.
The woman's lips were right against her ear as she whispered, "Pesky things, emotions, aren't they? Just as you start to feel solidly on your feet, something happens and they rip the ground from under them."
The closeness was overwhelming. Elsa could feel something unknown stirring from deep in her stomach. With a life that was a rollercoaster of so many drastically different emotions, the unfamiliarity and the intensity of it horrified her.
"What are you feeling right now?" the woman asked, pressing her forehead against the queen's so she could look her right in the eyes. "Are you excited?" A smirk manipulated her lips. "Does that frighten you?"
Heart pounding against ribs like a battering ram against the castle gates, Elsa swallowed bitter bile, choking out a whisper for mercy. "Please... stop this..."
A wicked chuckle escaped from the woman's lips. "Don't worry. I will." She tilted her head slightly and leaned in even closer, their lips now almost touching. "You'll never have to feel like this again." The woman's lips pressed hard against Elsa's.
Something cold seemed to emanate from the woman's lips and travel into the queen's chest like a cold stream freezing mid-flow. An icy numbness penetrated her heart and soul and all attempts at coherent thought were futile.
The witch made sure the queen was completely paralyzed with cold before she pulled completely away from her. Her spell was complete.
Charlotte smiled as her revenge collapsed to the floor in a pathetic heap. If Elsa's parents were unable to rue the day, she certainly would.